With or Without Pride
by Death's Apostle
Summary: It's been done, yes i understand this; however, mine is better. A female fighter character who actually has some impact on the plot,and a personality, that changes! Could it be true? Why yes! "After all, Hiei didn't survive this long on his own you know."


With or Without Pride

By Anya Robberts

Two black clad figures stood silently in the dark of the Makai night. A night made even darker by the thick forest in which they waited.  
"So…are we ever gonna make with the illegal activity?" asked the taller female. The shorter of the two didn't bother to respond. Knowing she was only bored, and attempting to provoke a reaction from him, the fire demon continued his constant vigil without breaking his rigid stance. The young woman sighed, dramatically, at her partner's silence and after getting no response from a hard stare either, gave up and jumped lightly onto a tree limb that stuck out halfway up the large tree under which they stood.

Silence reigned once again over the two criminals as they waited for the rest of their party to arrive. The angry looking young man on the ground stood straight and attentive where he had initially settled and though his tall black hair moved slightly in the increasing wind, along with his black cloak, he remained perfectly still. On the contrary, his partner had sprawled out on her stomach up on the tree branch, hands supporting her chin and one of her legs draping off the limb to swing languidly, enjoying the air moving through her golden white hair. After a few minutes, and nothing but a bored sigh breaking the hush quiet their presence had set upon the forest night, another figure appeared out of the dark.

His approach was so silent, that the warrior in the tree was actually surprised at not having heard or seen him, given her greatly superior senses. She had felt his energy coming, of course, but it was quite a feat to deceive her olfactory senses, and she was impressed. He looked and smelled almost human, but she had been assured, multiple times, that he was far, far more than he seemed. Minutes of silence passed until they were all quite aware of the approach of a massive body moving through the brush behind the silent new-comer. After the remarkable entrance of the tall red head, the young woman clapped her hand to her forehead and dragged it down her face, wondering once again, why in the seven hells her partner thought bringing this weak, low class, idiot along was a good idea. The giant, ugly, monstrous demon that appeared out of the nightly haze, leaving a trail of fallen trees and crushed shrubbery behind him, had even the seasoned fighters turning up their noses in disgust, though some more obviously then others, and for this she again blamed her superior senses.

The four thieves, thusly united and all knowing by heart their purposes in the coming heist, began their journey toward their collective target. Each member of the temporary team knew their job, each necessary, independent, as well as taking place simultaneously, and went to work without even a look at one another. The tall fox demon, that had joined them so silently, was responsible for cracking the locks, and did so with a satisfied smirk. The fire demon, the shorter of the original two, used his world renowned speed to disable any and all guards and video equipment in the vicinity. Once inside the vault it was time for the Lioness demon, the fire demon's companion, to use her inborn reflexes, flexibility, and her control over energies such as electricity and lightning to easily tackle the state of the art laser defense system, leaving the once unbeatable vault protection system now nothing more than a door accessible to the team. The three men moved immediately to a large and boldly painted display, which housed three of the most dangerous spirit items in the three worlds. While her partners claimed their prizes, the lioness moved to a darker and less carefully decorated corner of the vault. Head turning quickly at the call of her grinning companion, she turned back to grab and pocket a small amulet, and then moved to join the others.

The group, now ready to leave, had the over-sized idiot-demon do what any of them could have easily accomplished with far more grace, and smashed out the back wall. Rolling her eyes as an alarm finally began to sound, the four tore away into the forest. They ran all night, but eventually came to a portal linking Makai, the demon world, with that of the human world. Without even a backward glance they all leapt through it.

Vitani could say with a rock solid certainty, an opinion that had been fostered over centuries, that the transition between worlds was something you just never got used to. In her opinion having all of one's atoms taken apart and then rearranged in a completely different plane of existence was an experience that, while exceedingly thrilling, was also horribly jolting to the senses. It was for this reason that at that moment Vitani, the lioness demon of the small thieving group, though having been one of the only ones to land gracefully on her feet, was now bent over wheezing and hacking as if she had just been inhaling off an 18-wheeler's tailpipe.

Goki, the grotesque and rather useless giant of the group, who upon entering the human world had taken on an equally grotesque human looking facade, adopted a queer look on his face as he watched his teammate, whom up until seconds ago he had considered terrifying, contort and thrash around ridiculously trying to remove the Human contaminants from her lungs. Hiei scoffed and rolled his eyes at her overly dramatic reaction, The Fox, Kurama, seemed a bit unsure of the girl's sanity, but it seemed as if Goki was actually enjoying watching the young woman suffer. As well as a sadistic sense of pleasure, the massive demon also had no sense of shame or tact and so blurted out,  
"What the Fuck's her problem?"

Hiei, who had stayed silent during the heist, seemed to find a small bit of joy in turning away from Vitani and saying through an evil smirk  
"Some kind of psychological imbalance, I'm sure"

Immediately all sound coming from the blond stopped and she stood straight so quickly the motion was merely a blur. Then, all at once, noise began again in the form of an incredibly condescending lecture, accompanied by hand gestures in the form of finger jabs to the chest, finger shaking in a sort of 'naughty, naughty' sort of way, and wild throwing up of the arms. All in all, Kurama decided, it was probably in his best interest to keep from angering this very powerful, and seemingly insane, demon.

Vitani was the picture of righteous anger and swift vengeance as she launched into her tirade,

"You know I work! And I plan! And I execute flawlessly! I _could_ just sit aimlessly and uselessly along the sidelines like YOU, a worthless piece of soul sucking shit! But NO! Because I _am_ such a superior breed, and have these far superior qualities, it falls to me to make sure we _have_ a plan. And that the plan runs flawlessly. And that, because you're such a _whiny _useless piece of soul sucking shit, you have something to do that doesn't completely ruin our plans and land us in Spirit Prison. Have you ever even _been_ in Spirit Prison? It sucks! And because I have absolutely no intention of going back to that filthy, rotten, disgusting, putrid, decomposing place the planning must fall to me. However, I haven't been to the Human World in some time, so is it _my_ fault I'm finding it far more troublesome than I had originally anticipated. There are humans Everywhere! Of course, I expected that going to the "human" world would equate dealing with _humans_, but, for the love of all things Holy!, they're fucking EVERYWHERE! Their stench! and their machines, and their machines' stench! _And_ the filthy smoke billowing out of their buildings, which are everywhere as well, by the way, and it permeates the city like a violent plague, fully intent on destroying everything it touches. As a Lioness, and a full blooded, high-ranking demon lioness at that", and here she smirked and glanced at Hiei (who was by this point desperately trying to stop the smile from fully blooming on his face) and looked down with her hand on her chest in a fake gesture of modesty, "which aren't anything at all like the weaklings living in this world or ours, my senses are far superior to nearly all other creatures in all three worlds and exponentially greater then those of any of you. Given this, I think it's perfectly understandable, even expected, that I was struck the hardest by the filth floating in the air in this place and I should be allowed a moment to get over the shock." It was here that she paused and her deathly glare seemed to drift away with the afternoon breeze as she noticed Goki, her intended audience, was struck immobile, his mouth even ajar and drooling. She began to smirk in a far more amused way and continued, Kurama was sure, for her own entertainment. "Sure, _mayyybeee_, it's _pooosible_, that perhaps my reaction was just a **tad** thespian; however, I am, at my core, a feline and unashamedly prone to feline-like behavior: over-acting, whining, getting my way…eating the family bird." she trailed off looking distracted, and perhaps, oddly, enough, a bit hungry. Finally finished with her tirade she broke into a round of giggles and breathed in a deep breath of the cool air she had just been disgusted with. Then to Kurama's continued amazement she smiled. It was a small smile, and given mostly to herself, but Kurama caught it, and couldn't have been more confused, until she spoke again.

"Ooh, I smell cherry blossoms!"

It was whispered, but they were all demons, and so he heard it. Hiei, during this time had been watching his teammates' faces and was seconds from actually laughing out loud. Knowing Vitani better then probably anyone else, he knew that she was just having fun with the giant idiot, and though she was only doing it for her own amusement, he found great pleasure in the performance as well.

When she finally began paying attention to them once more she noticed blank faces and it might have been her hallucinating again, but she was sure she saw swirls in their eyes as well. With a huff, she regained their attention and concluded,  
"Besides, I know you're just jealous of my superiority, so I'll let it slide this once…remember my magnanimous-ness in the future." she finished, admiring her nails.  
At Hiei's exasperated look, the last of all her righteous anger melted off her and a huge smile took its place. She practically skipped over to him and put her arm around his shoulder. This motion only seemed to darken his look, something she chose to ignore completely; as she dragged him down the street toward the forest they planned to make their meeting place, chattering about the beautiful weather the whole way. However, to Kurama's complete and utter surprise after a few steps together Hiei relaxed and willingly walked next to her. Kurama usually prided himself on rarely being surprised, as well as his ability to understand the confusing, but he had to admit…he was non-plused. He had never seen anyone treat Hiei so openly companionable, well, treat him that way and survive at any rate. The last time he had seen someone put their arm around Hiei he had been Yoko Kurama and the demon had, had all his limbs removed before being set on fire. A little overkill in Kurama's opinion, but as the length of their partnership had grown and they had begun to trust one another he had learned that Hiei was definitely not a people person. Kurama had also learned that Hiei had been separated from his close, and as Kurama presumed, only, friend.

One night after the two of them had successfully completed a difficult heist they had gotten around to drinking, and to Kurama's surprise, talking. Kurama had learned that this friend had been a very powerful demon Hiei had spent many years with, but now assumed dead. Was it possible this female was the demon Hiei had spoken of with such high regard? After hearing the stories he had told about his partner Kurama had envisioned a vicious blood thirsty maniac with so much raw power he could destroy entire continents if he so chose. Hiei had spoken of scars received at the hands of a great and powerful demon that had tortured his friend for decades before the friend had killed his tormentor and completely leveled the demon's camp, leaving no one alive. This girl had no scars that he could detect; although, she was wearing long sleeves and long pants. He simply couldn't picture this girl as the warrior Hiei had described. She was muscled, certainly, but it was very lean and she didn't look more than average by means of power. She was beautiful certainly; she had the golden blond hair lions were known for, but it also stood out greatly because of its almost white colored streaks. Also, instead of the usual gold, hazel or dark green eyes of that race, she owned stunning electric blue, which only added to her oddity. She was a lioness's tall height, and had the expected tawny skin, but it was just so unusual to see a lioness without a pride. He knew that lone wolves, though uncommon, often existed just fine on their own. However, to see a single lioness meant either, that she had been banished, one of the most severe punishments within prides, for it almost always meant death, or that her entire pride had been killed. He saved that thought for pondering at a later time and quickly followed after them not wishing to be seen, and Goki soon after.


End file.
